An enzymatic approach to bifunctional chelating agents.

Bifunctional chelating agents (BFCAs) combine the complexing properties of a multidentate ligand with the presence of a free reactive functional group, mainly devoted to conjugation purposes. Indeed, products obtained by conjugation of a BFCA to a biomolecule and coordination of a suitable metal ion are widely applied in medicine nowadays as diagnostic and therapeutic agents. BFCAs are generally prepared through multi-step syntheses and with extensive application of protection-deprotection strategies, due to the large number of functional groups involved. Hydrolytic enzymes, with their unique chemoselectivity, provided the best results in the preparation of three different BFCAs based on very useful and well known ligand platforms.